Evaluation of the CSM-CROPGRO-Canola Model for Simulating Canola Growth and Yield at West Nipissing in Eastern Canada

1 Canola was developed in Canada in the 1970s as an edible cultivar of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) with low glucosinolates and low erucic acid. Currently, canola is grown on eight million ha of agricultural land in Canada, which is 22% of the global canola area. More than half of the harvested canola seeds in Canada are exported, accounting for 46% of the international canola market (FAOSTAT, 2015). The seed yield of canola has doubled since the 1970s (FAOSTAT, 2015), and, with increasing demands for renewable energy and dietary consumption, production is expected to increase. Environmental factors such as temperature, atmospheric CO2 concentration, and precipitation have a significant effect on crop development and growth (Howden et al., 2007). Facing climate change associated with enhanced greenhouse effects (IPCC, 2007), Canadian climatic conditions are projected to be warmer, with longer growing seasons and increased annual heat units (Qian et al., 2013). However, these changes may also be accompanied by extreme climatic conditions (Qian et al., 2010). These projected climate changes may force canola producers to change cultivars and other management practices to mitigate the potential negative impact on yields and to benefit from the extended growing season. Evaluating canola’s response to climate change and management practices through growth experiments in climate chambers can be extremely expensive if not infeasible. On the other hand, crop growth models simulate crop development and soil processes by integrating environmental factors and crop management practices and are thus powerful tools for assessing crop responses to different climatic conditions and crop management practices. Compared with cereal crops, only a few crop models have been developed for canola. Canola plants have a special biophysical feature in that their pods gradually take over the function of light absorption and photosynthesis during the late growing season as leaves go into early senescence (Gammelvind et al., 1996). Therefore, the total area of leaves and pods function together after flowering, and the plant area index (PAI) rather than leaf area index (LAI) might be more relevant for calculating light interception in canola simulations. By mimicking Biometry, Modeling & Statistics